


» o 



A 






'o. •'-: 












,0^' .^ « " • 



Pr^.--^^- 











































' ^- ^^ ^^^^^^''. V.S^^ /.^i^\ "^^..^^ /I(^ 

























^0 '^ 'J^'^iSS*^. ^r 






Ha,c„a« T^v-My-V.^-M v-^v^- 'A».%v,cKv>^€n% 



/ 
ADDRESS 



OF THE 



(Jentral Committee 

Appointed by a Convention of both branches 
of the Legislature friendly to the election 
of John Q.Adams as president and Richard 
Rush as vice-president of the U. States, 
held at the State-House in Boston, June 
10, 1828, to their fellow-citizens. 



The Central Committee of the friends of the 
Administration in Massachusetts, in the discharge 
of their duty, submit the following statements and 
considerations to their fellow citizens, through- 
out the Commonwealth. They have delayed this 
Address till the present late moment, from the wish 
to see the great national question at issue reduced 
to its narrowest form, and brought within such a 
compass, as that the public generally, and every 
elector, may perceive what is the probable event, 
and what are the turning points of the election. 
Believing that their fellow citizens look to this Com- 
monwealth for an accurate statement of the present 
situation of the canvass, we shall proceed to lay it 
before them, according to the latest and most au- 
thentic information. 






Great efforts have been made, both within and 
witliout tlie bounds of New England, to shake the 
attachment of the good people of this part of the 
Union to the men of their choice ; while in the 
opposite section of the country, with a few excep- 
tions, all local divisions have been merged, and 
the most irreconcileable political enemies have 
combined in one effort to prostrate the Adminis- 
tration. Attempts have been insidiously made, 
with an assiduity and zeal worthy of a better cause, 
though happily without any effect, to destroy, by 
internal divisions, the strength of the New Eng- 
land States. To keep up the sinking spirits of 
the party opposed to the Administration, it is, in 
distant parts of the Union, reported, one day, that 
New Hampshire has declared against the Admin- 
istration ; the next, that three districts are lost in 
Maine ; and the next, that there is a formidable 
opposition in Vermont. As often as the truth of 
these statements has been brought to the test of 
the ballot box, it has been seen how grossly delu- 
sive they are ; and never more conspicuously than 
in the late elections in Maine, which have resulted 
in sifting the government of that State of those, 
who, in defiance of the will, the judgment, and 
the interests of the people, were endeavouring to 
traffic away their votes for selfish aggrandizement. 
All New England remains firm and unshaken for 
the Administration, and will support it with fifty 
one votes. As it is our immediate purpose to state 
those facts which may be relied on as certain^ 
leaving out of view, for the present, such as, from 
the nature of the case, remain yet to be decided, 
we pass over New York, where the Administration 
has the support generally of the people, and 
where, in a large majority of the districts, we 
have good hope that the dictation of the political 
managers will be successfully resisted. In like 



manner we leave Pennsylvania at present out of 
the account ; but before closing this Address, we 
shall communicate the result of our latest infor- 
mation, in respect to that state. The votes of 
New Jersey, eight in number, and of Delaware, 
three, may be calculated on, with perfect confi- 
dence, for the Administration. It deserves notice, 
that Mr. Condict, a most respectable representa- 
tive of Congress from New Jersey, was the indi- 
vidual, who first recommended Gen. Jackson to 
Mr. Madison for the appointment of Major General 
in the Army of the United States. This fiict Mr. 
Condict has lately stated to the public, adding, in 
substance, that, though " his confidence in General 
Jackson's military talent remains unshaken, noth- 
ing could have been farther from his thoughts than 
to prepare his way for the Presidency, deeming 
him destitute of all the qualifications for the office. 
Passing for the present over Maryland, and the 
States still farther south, we reach Louisiana, the 
field of Gen. Jackson's fame, and visited by him a 
few months since, for the first time since the year 
1815, with what views this Committee will leave to 
the judgment of their fellow citizens. The people 
of Louisiana were the only portion of the citizens 
of the United States who had witnessed a specimen 
of Gen. Jackson's construction of the constitution 
and laws. They have tried him, and the result is 
known to the Union. It is a truly singular circum- 
stance, that while the people of Louisiana, and of 
the city of New Orleans itself, are rousiug them- 
selves against Gen. Jackson with such spirit and 
firmness, there should be found a numerous party, 
in other portions of the Union, willing, on the sole 
ground of his exploits at New Orleans, to elevate 
him to the most arduous civil trust in the world. 
We should have thought, that the people of all the 
other states would have said, in effect, to tho 



people of New Orleans, who co-operated, as one 
man, in the defence of that city, and exhibited a 
patriotic valor as conspicuous on their part, as the 
bravery manifested on his: — 'What is your judg- 
ment of this candidate for the Presidency ? How 
did he demean himself while among you ?' And 
when it was seen that this people pronounced him 
wholly unfit, it might have l3cen expected that 
others, who had not tried him, would be governed, 
in a good degree, by the opinion of those who 
had. The five votes of Louisiana will be given 
for Mr. Adams. 

In like manner, the sixteen votes of Ohio, the 
fourteen of Kentucky, and the five of Indiana will 
be given, in support of the Administration. — Efforts, 
almost incredible, and unsurpassed in the history 
of the elections of this country, have been made, 
to detach Kentucky from the cause ; but it is grati- 
fying to see the steady and decisive operation of 
the good sense of the people, rising over every ob- 
stacle. From a careful attention to the progress of 
events, throughout the whole canvass, we find that 
the sober, thinking, and especially the aged people, 
with the young men, who aim to advance them- 
selves by diligence, industry, devotion to business 
in their calling, and attachment to principle, are al- 
most unanimous for the Administration. On the 
other side, arc as generally enlisted the political 
managers, the unsuccessful politicians ofal! parties, 
the unreflecting, and the adventurers. This con- 
sideration shows us, that we have in our favour the 
princijylc on which our institutions rest, the good 
sense and sound judgment of the people. 

The votes we have thus far enumerated, and 
which are a part only of those which are certain for 
Mr Adams, and those of 



The six New-England States, 


- 51 


New-Jersey, - - - 


- 8 


Delaware, - - - - 


3 


Ohio, - . - - 


- 16 


Kentucky, - - - - 


14 


Indiana, . - - - 


- 5 


Louisiana, - - - - 


5 



102 
The votes of several other states are exceedingly 
doubtful, and fully as likely to be given to Mr. 
Adams, as to General Jackson. Among those we 
mention first Illinois and Missouri. In these States, 
members of Congress have lately been elected sup- 
posed to be friendly to General Jackson. But the 
best information we can obtain assures us, that 
this is the effect of local divisions, relative particu- 
larly to the land system of those States. At the 
election of 1824, one of the three votes of Illinois 
was given to Mr. Adams, after that election was 
decided in the house of Representatives, on which 
occasion Mr. Scott the member Irom Missouri 
voted for Mr. Adams, the people of the state of 
Missouri elected Mr. Bates a zealous friend of the 
Administration, in the place of Mr. Scott. These 
facts show that the votes of these two States may 
be considered as doubtful. 

A majority of the thinking and reflecting portion 
of the people of Virginia, are in favour of the re- 
election of Mr. Adams; eight of the electors, who 
supported Mr. Jefferson are living, and of these 
seven are friendly to the Administration. A large 
majority of the Judges of the State are of the same 
politics. The venerated Chief Justice Marshall 
has declared publicly that for the first time for a 
long course of years, he shall go to the polls, for 
the sake of testifying his abhorence of the manner 
in which the Chief Magistrate of the Union has 



been assailed. His respected associate, Judge Wash- 
ington, the nephew of him who was first in the hearts 
of his countrymen, is equally attached to the Admin- 
istration ; and Messrs Madison and Munroe were 
prevented only by their unwillingness to encounter 
the abuse poured on the friends of the Administra- 
tion by the opposition press, from obeying the call 
of their fellow citizens, friendly to the election of 
Mr. Adams, and heading the electoral list. These 
few acts show that the judicious and reflecting por- 
tion of the people of Virginia is with us ; such, how- 
ever, is the ascendency possessed by the political 
organization concentrated at Richmond, and acting 
through the instrumentality of a paper, once able 
and respectable, and not yet as destitute of influ- 
ence, as of character, that we cannot flatter our- 
selves too sanguinely with carrying the vote of the 
State. But when we consider the good materials, 
which it contains, with the additional fact that all 
the partizan leaders now supporting General Jack- 
son, in that State, were four years ago his bitterest 
enemies, regarding him as a person, who by intrud- 
ing himself into the canvass, had broken down Mr. 
Crawford in the south, there is no ground whatever 
to despair. The prospect in North Carolina is still 
more encouraging, at the last election General 
Jackson had scarce a third of the votes of that State, 
and the friends of Mr. Crawford have generally de- 
clared their preference to Mr. Adams, as their 
second choice. The sober judgment of the mass 
of the people, in that State, is wholly enlisted with 
us. 

The strong tendency of our party divisions to 
assume a geographical form, against which Wash- 
ington so solemnly warned us, lessens the hopes, 
which we might otherwise feel, that the States last 
mentioned will support a northern president. No 
such obstacle exists in the great and interesting 



State of Pennsylvania, and there the good cause 
which we support witii that silent and steady progress 
which marks tlie triumphs of truth and reason, has 
been gaining, almost unobserved, a most gratifying 
ascendency. At the last election, no serious effort 
was made against General Jackson. The friends 
of Mr. Calhoun abandoned him at a day's notice^ 
and joined the friends of General Jackson, and 
neither of the other candidates were supported with 
vigour. The consequence was, that the whole 
number of votes was small. General Jackson re- 
ceived a plurality of them, but it was a very small 
minority of the whole number of voters, who will 
come to the polls at the next election. Since the 
present contest has existed, the nature of the pres- 
idential office has been brought home to the minds 
of the people, and the qualifications of the candi- 
dates have been compared. It is unnecessary to say, 
what has been the result. The society of Friends 
and the other religious communities opposed to 
war, of course give the preference to a civilian and 
a man of peace. The German population has been 
too much gratified by the unostentatious manners 
of the President, and the practical business-like 
character of the administration, to wish for a change. 
Their maxim is 'to let what is well enough, alone.' 
They are coming out in all directions for Mr. 
Adams and Mr. Rush. Our present information 
enables us to state, that the progress of opinion in 
favor of the administration has been astonishingly 
great. The members of Congress most violently 
opposed to the administration will not be re-elected. 
Several of them have failed to be re-nominated by 
their own friends ; and we have the pleasing assur- 
ance, that out of twenty-six members of Congress 
from that State, to be elected this autumn, fifteen 
or sixteen will be friendly to the administration. 
We consider that, at this moment, the State of 



8 

Pennsylvania is equally balanced, and as likely to 
go for the administration, as against it. 

It ouffht not to be omitted here, that in one of 
the districts of Tennessee, the friends of the admin- 
istration are unquestionably a majority. But as 
club law is introduced in that region, and any per- 
son signalizing himself, as an opponent to the can- 
didate of the majority, is subject to personal out- 
rage, assault and assassination, it is not impossible 
that the friends of the administration, consisting as 
they do of the friends of order and peace, may be 
driven from the polls, by mobs of armed despera- 
does, and prevented from giving their suffrage. It 
is known, however, that a year ago, the opposition 
candidate for Congress, in a district of East Ten- 
nessee, was elected by a very slender majority over 
his competitor, and many well-informed persons are 
persuaded, that General Jackson will lose the 
electoral votes of that district. But for the reign 
of terror, to which w^e have alluded, such would 
unquestionably be the case. 

We have made these statements, relative to 
doubtful States, and doubtful votes, in the dis- 
charge of our duty to the citizens of this Com- 
monwealth ; and not because any of them are 
necessary to the re-election of the chief magis- 
trate ; still, however, a bare re-election does not 
satisfy the wishes of the friends of our republican 
institutions. We wish to show to the world, that 
there is not a bare plurality, but an overwhelming 
majority of the people, in favor of mild, pacific, 
and civil principles of administration. Returning, 
therefore, to the statement commenced above, and 
which extended to 102 votes, with regard to which 
no controversy exists, even on the part of the 
candid opponents, we add, 

In Maryland, 9, and 
In New York, 24; 



9 

Making, in addition to those enumerated above, 
135; being four more votes than are required to 
re-elect Mr. Adams, a majority of the electoral 
college beinof 131. We claim but 9 of the 11 
votes of Maryland, although well-informed per- 
sons think that but one vote in that state will be 
given to Gen. Jackson. In New York the reaction 
against the Albany dictation is tremendous. The 
chains of the caucus despotism seem to be broken. 
Hints had been thrown out, by way of sounding 
the public, that the legislature would rob the 
people of the election. At the first distant rumor 
of the plot, the substantial yeomanry of the state 
was perceived to be in motion. The leaders 
shrunk back appalled. The project is disclaimed, 
and will not be attempted. But even in tamper- 
ing thus far with the sacred right of suffrage, those 
who have too long misled the councils of that great 
and intelligent state, have fatally shaken the ffibric 
of their own strength. To stop the progress of 
defection, every effort and every artifice have been 
resorted to ; and a last unworthy attempt is now 
making, to draw some food for opposition out of 
the Morgan excitement. This attempt has been 
conducted with deep-plotting malignity. It was 
first clamorously asserted, throughout the opposi- 
tion presses, that the President was a mason. The 
contrary having been often stated to be the fact, 
a citizen of New York resolved to ascertain the 
truth, and addressed a letter to him containing the 
inquiry. To this the President, in the most simple 
and inoffensive terms, returned an answer, desiring 
the person addressing him, in consideration of the 
prevailing excitement, not to publish the letter. 
By a breach of honor and confidence not now for 
the first time practised, and which unhappily be- 
longs to the maxim, ' that all is fair in politics,' 
this correspondence has been thrown into the 

2 



10 

newspapers ; and now the President is denounced 
in the most outrageous manner — for answering the 
letter of a citizen, and is basely charged with 
endeavoring to take advantage of the Morgan 
excitement, and this in many instances by the 
very men, who, for political effect, had declared 
him to be a free-mason, knowing such not to be 
the fact ! We are gratified to hear that a course 
of such strongly marked tergiversation has been 
seen in its true light in the State of New- York, 
and that each new effort to destroy the character 
of the President, gains him new friends and warmer 
support. We have set down 24 votes for that State. 
From sources of information, entitled to great re- 
spect, we might claim three quarters of the whole 
number, or 27. A statement just published in the 
Nashville Republican, the official paper of the 
friends of the opposition candidate, concedes to 
the Administration 22 votes in the State. This 
number of votes will be secure, even if but 20 out 
of the 34 electors chosen by the people should be 
friendly to the Administration, because a majority 
of these 34 choose the two additional electors. 
But 22 votes in New York will re-elect Mr. 
Adams, even although four votes in Maryland, 
and all, which we have considered as doubtful, 
throughout the United States, should be given 
to Gen. Jackson. 

The election then is safe, but it is safe in the 
supposition, that the friends of principle do their 
duty. But it cannot be disguised that the contest 
has been waged from a very early period, in a 
manner betokening desperation. Presses, conduct- 
ed by men without character and lost to shame, 
have been put forward, in front of the array. One 
of these has been selected for the patronage of the 
Senate of the United States, a body, which till the 
organization of the present opposition, had preserv- 



11 

ed its dignity in the darkest times. Others of like 
stamp are scattered over the Union, and have given 
a character to the controversy, which reflects dis- 
credit on the country. Our metropolis presents a sig- 
nal example; so outrageous is the press, enlisted in 
Boston in the cause of General Jackson, (whom it 
proclaimed totally unfit for the presidency four years 
ago,) that a new opposition journal has been started, 
on the alleged ground, that the former was a scan- 
dal to any cause. It is a matter of regret, that the 
feeble support given to the new paper conclusively 
shows, that violence, scurrillity, invasion of private 
character, and systematic disregard of truth are 
deemed essential to the presses, which oppose the 
Administration. 

While on this head, we think it proper to remark, 
that though the opposition presses, and those that 
effect a neutrality, endeavour to recriminate on the 
presses engaged in support of the Administration ; 
it is a singular and an important fact, that there is 
not a reproach against General Jackson's public or 
private character, which was not originally publish- 
ed by some of his present friends. It was his great 
supporter in the Western States, Mr. Senator 
Benton, who declared him the author of an outrage 
"unheard of in the civilized world." It was the 
Benton pamphlet, which first brought to public 
notice the various charges against the private life 
of General Jackson, and exposed the circumstances 
of the military executions under his command ; 
and it was the Boston opposition paper, which first 
called the public attention, in this part of the coun- 
try, to this pamphlet, declaring that its author had 
done nobly, in showing the unfitness of General 
Jackson for the Presidency. It was General Adair 
of Kentucky, who many years ago, insinuated, that 
General Jackson, after being implicated in Burr's 
treason, had made his peace with the govern- 



12 

ment, by turning state's evidence ; and it was the 
organ of the CentralJunta of Richmond, which, af- 
ter a general review of his life, declared that " his 
election would be a curse to his country ;" and it 
was the organ of the Caucus Managers at Albany, 
which denounced him as " a federalist " and de- 
clared that he stood " at an immeasurable distance 
from the Presidential Chair." 

We do not deem it necessary, at this late stage 
of the controversy, to enter into an exposition of 
the character of the two candidates before the peo- 
ple. As friends of the Chief Magistrate, we are 
willing to rest his cause, witjj the testimonials in his 
favor, proceeding from each of his predecessors in 
the office ; with the unexampled satisfaction afford- 
ed by Mr. Munroe's eight years administration, of 
which Mr. Adams, under the President, stood at the 
head, and with the sober judgment of the people, 
on his own acts, since he has filled the Chair of 
State. As opponents of General Jackson, we are 
willing to rest our strong persuasion of his want of 
qualifications, on the assertions of his incompeten- 
cy made, four years ago, by the men and the pres- 
ses now foremost in his support. We had not for- 
merly, we have not now, any hostility to his reasona- 
ble pretensions. We acknowledge his services at 
New-Orleans. As he appeared desirous of some 
further reward, than he had received, we were for 
a time willing to raise him to the place of Vice- 
President, an office not conferring any portion of 
the executive power of the government, and where 
his peculiar habits of command migiit have been 
advantageously employed in preventing the occur- 
rence of scenes, which we fear for the honor of the 
country, it will be hard to effiice from the journals of 
the Senate. But the political leaders and the pres- 
ses now enlisted in General Jackson's cause, com- 
pelled us to feel and to acknowledge his unfitness 



/ 



13 

for the Presidential Chair. We cannot change the 
convictions they produced in our minds, because 
their interest has led them to change their language. 
What they proved to be true, four years ago, has 
not ceased to be true, because they have combined 
to place a man, in the Chair of State, whose elec- 
tion they then pronounced, would be a curse to 
America. 

If we were disposed, at this late day, to enter in- 
to a discussion of the charges against the Adminis- 
tration, we should be prevented by their extreme 
futility. The charge most depended on, and selec- 
ted by General Jackson himself as the most promi- 
nent, is that of a corrupt understanding between 
Mr. Adams and Mr. Clay, preceded by a proffer 
of a like understanding on the part of Mr. Clay to 
himself When General Jackson first lent his 
name to this charge, he promised to give up his 
authority for making it, should Mr. Clay deny its 
truth, and to retract the charge, if it proved to be 
unfounded. Mr. Clay instantly made the denial ; 
and General Jackson then named Mr. Buchanan of 
Pennsylvania, as the bearer of the corrupt overture 
from Mr Clay. Mr. Buchanan immediately came 
out, with the declaration, that he acted on his own 
behalf, and without authority from any one. Gen. 
Jackson has not yet redeemed his pledge, by re- 
tracting the charge, which his own witness has dis- * 
proved. But what makes the charge of a corrupt 
understanding, if possible, more ridiculous, than it 
has become, by the uniform failure of every attempt 
to substantiate it, is the fact, that the offices are 
already currently named, which almost every man is 
to fill, who is now an active leader in the cause of 
General Jackson. Mr. Calhoun, who was broken 
down by General Jackson at the last election, and 
owed the office of Vice-President to the votes of 
Mr. Adams' friends in New-England, is now to be 



14 

supported as Vice-President, by the friends of 
General Jackson ; although the political hostility 
and the opposition of interest, between Mr. Calhoun 
and the Caucus Managers at Albany are so great, 
that even down to the present moment, Mr. Cal- 
houn has not been able to procure a nomination in 
New- York. The Members of the Cabinet, the 
Foreign Ministers, and all the subordinate officers 
of the government, to be appointed by General 
Jackson throughout the country, are confidentially 
specified ; and not a few of them are men who 
four years ago where straining every nerve to prove 
to the American people, that General Jackson was 
utterly unfit to preside over the nation. 

Nor is it merely individuals that have thus formed 
a general coalition. A leading member of Con- 
gress, friendly to Gen. Jackson, declared two years 
ago, that ' the combmations, to effect his election, 
were nearly completed.' When pressed to explain 
this alarming representation, he stated that he 
meant, not combinations of individuals, but com- 
binations of great States. We accordingly find 
that an attempt has been made to bring about a 
combination between New- York and Pennsylvania, 
on the one hand, and Virginia and South Carolina 
on the other. While Gen. Jackson is recommend- 
ed, in Pennsylvania, as the father of the tariff 
system, his election is urged at the South, on 
the ground that under him, there will be a fair 
chance for its repeal. 

But we confess that we are opposed to the 
election of Gen. Jackson, and are friendly to that 
of the present chief magistrate, on higher ground 
than the mere futility of the charges brought 
against the Administration. We consider our 
republic, as it was called by our beloved Wash- 
ington, the last great experiment of the capacity 
of man for self-government. In the organization 



15 

of such a republic there must be a principle, and 
if this principle be departed from, the republic 
itself must crumble and fall. This principle, in 
our government, is, that high civil trusts should be 
given, not as decorations for military provi^ess, but 
to men whose qualifications fit them to discharge 
the duties of the said trusts. This is a business 
government, and the chief magistrate, so far from 
being a parade officer, has much more business to 
do than any officer in the Union. His business is 
of an arduous and complicated nature. He must 
be thoroughly acquainted with the laws of the 
country, for every question in the administration 
and execution of the laws, throughout the Union, 
which is referred to Washington, must be decided, 
in the last resort, by him. Matters, the most per- 
plexed, are in this way constantly submitted to him, 
which he must personally investigate and settle. 
It is impossible to do this, without being familiar 
with the whole course of judicial decision in the 
Courts both of the States and the Union. All the 
intricacies of the public land system must be at his 
command. The entire series of the revenue laws, 
with their successive changes and present state, 
must be present at once to his mind, for millions 
of the public property depend upon his being able, 
in case of need, to direct their prompt application. 
All cases of disputed accounts, in every part of the 
service requiring Executive sanction, are referred 
to and must be examined by him. The President 
must know the whole internal condition of the 
country, and the natural and economical connec- 
tion of its various parts with each other, for he is 
daily called on to authorize expenditures of the 
public money, under the acts of Congress providing 
for surveys. Every act of Congress is presented 
to him for his signature. He must do what, if it 
were the sole business of the most industrious of 



16 

our legislators, would be thought enough to 
occupy all their time ; that is, he must read over 
every act of Congress, weigh the reports on which 
it is founded, and the debates of its friends and 
opposers, and make up his mind whether, under 
the solemnity of an oath, he can put his name to 
it. In the administration of so vast a country as 
this, and under a government so recent as ours, 
new cases, unprovided for by legislation, are of 
frequent occurrence in every department of the 
service. These must be anxiously examined and 
decided, by the Chief Magistrate, according to 
the analogy of the constitution and law of the 
country. Almost the whole province of the 
Indian affairs of the country, a subject difficult 
and embarrassing beyond belief, is left by law 
with the discretion of the President. A number 
of treaties, with different tribes of Indians, are 
annually to be made, of the highest importance 
to the United States ; difficulties of the most 
embarrassing character, in the execution of form- 
er treaties, frequently arise ; and collisions between 
different States of the Union and the Aborigines 
in their neighbourhood, of painful and alarming 
aspect, have taken place from time to time ever 
since the peace of 1783. All these are subjects 
on which the President must often come to an 
instant decision, involving a vast amount of 
property, and affecting human life itself. 

The proceedings of court martials, naval and 
military, are referred to the President, and their 
record, often extremely voluminous, must be read 
by him with the greatest care, as he is to approve 
or disapprove the sentence. The same holds of 
criminal trials in the courts in the United 
States. The President is obliged to administer, 
in the last resort, the discipline of the West Point 
Academy ; and in case of dismission, generally 



17 

receives applications for the restoration of the 
cadet, requiring careful investigation of the cir- 
cumstances. Then there is the entire foreign 
intercourse of the country, to which he must pay 
the closest attention. He must carefully read the 
voluminous correspondence of every foreign min- 
ister, charge d'affaires, and, in all cases of impor- 
tance, that of the consuls and commercial agents ; 
and he must direct the answers to be returned by 
the Secretary of State. With the principal powers 
of Europe we have negotiations pending, some of 
which relate to matters that have been in discus- 
sion twenty years, others to controversies as old as 
the constitution. The documents necessary to the 
understanding of these negotiations fill a great 
number of printed volumes, and no doubt as 
many more lie unpublished in the archives of 
government. In addition to this, these negotia- 
tions often turn upon difficult points of foreign 
law, the law of nature and nations, and the import 
and construction of our own treaties. It will not 
do, when the time for decision arrives, for the 
President to be obliged to sit down, and begin 
to inquire into the subject. He cannot conscien- 
tiously leave to his Secretary of State, what his 
duty requires him to understand himself. All this 
profound and various knowledge must therefore be 
laid up in his mind, as in a vast storehouse, in 
orderly arrangement for immediate use. Besides 
the correspondence with our own ministers, the 
President must superintend the intercourse of the 
ministers of foreign powers with this government. 
We need only revert to the administrations of 
Washington, or the first of Mr. Madison, to 
understand the difficulty of this part of his duty. 
With all these labors pressing upon him, the 
President must, during one half of the year, 
stand ready to direct the answers to be made 

3 



18 

to the calls of the two Houses of Congress, on 
every imaginable subject, not merely of legislation, 
but of inquiry. He must find time to receive 
applications and recommendations for every office 
within his nomination, applications sometimes, it is 
believed, amounting to several hundreds for one 
office. He must receive the visits, and attend to 
the personal communications of every citizen of 
the United States, who repairs to Washington 
with business, over which the Chief Magistrate 
has, or is supposed to have, a control. And he 
must go through this enormous amount of work, 
(more, unquestionably, than devolves on any officer 
in the world,) under the knowledge, that he is to 
be traversed, at every step, by an active, and often 
an unscrupulous and unprincipled opposition ; that 
which ever way he decides or acts, some of the 
ablest men and most active presses in the country 
will be instantly in motion, to prove that he ought 
to have done the precise contrary. If the experi- 
ence of the last four years is to shovi^ the nature of 
the office, the President of the United States must 
also bear in mind, that, so far from being permitted 
the solace of private life, and the relaxation from 
incessant toil, which wearied nature demands, he 
is the only man in the country, whose house is not 
his castle, and that every step he takes, and every 
word he utters, will be searched out, with a scent 
as keen as the bloodhound's; and with a malignity, 
which innocence cannot disarm; nor honor restrain; 
nor indulgence satiate. We solemnly and fearlessly 
appeal to the American public to say, whether Gen. 
Jackson possesses the qualifications for such an office. 
Has he the knowledge of the constitution, and laws, 
and practice under them, of the system of the country 
in all its parts, of its internal interests, and of the in- 
finite variety of questions for Executive decision aris- 
ing out of them ; of our foreign relations, and our 
foreign politics ? We ask further, is there, at this 



19 

moment, an individual in the United States, who, 
with natural talents of the first order, has de- 
voted more time, more labor, and more industry 
to the various subjects comprehended within this 
great range, than our present Chief Magistrate, or 
has a longer experience and a more familiar ac- 
quaintance in public affairs? Nay more. Is there 
a citizen in this whole country, whether friendly or 
hostile to the Chief Magistrate, who, if his own 
life and fortune were at stake, in a decision to be 
made on any one of these great and intricate 
questions, would not rather submit the matter 
to Mr. Adams, than to his opponent ? 

But we are now told, by the English Government 
prints, that England wishes the election of Gen. 
Jackson, and why ? Does England wish our pros- 
perity to be increased, and our numbers augmen- 
ted ? Or does she wish to pay a compliment to the 
Hero of New-Orleans? Assuredly not. England 
wishes to see the principles, on which a republi- 
can government rests, proved to be fallacious. She 
wishes to hold up to the liberal party, in her own 
country and on the continent, the example of 
America, removing from the chair of State a long 
tried, faithful, and experienced statesman, and put- 
ting a victorious General, allowed to be unqualified, 
in his place. She wishes to prove by such an oc- 
currence, that in a Republic merit is not the path 
to promotion ; nor qualifications the requisite for 
oflice. It is for this, that she stands ready, if it is 
called for, " to expend a million of pounds," in pro- 
moting General Jackson's election ; and for this 
that her citizens, resident in this country, are en- 
listed in his cause. The pretence, to be sure, is, 
that General Jackson is hostile to the Manufactur- 
ing system, and that under his administration, the 
fabrics of America will be annihilated ; and to this 
colouring too much authority has been given, by his 
partisans in some portions of the country. But a 



20 

deeper policy animates the master-spirits in Eng- 
land; and in enlisting themselves in the British 
cabinet and the British parliament, on the side of 
GeneralJackson, they fly at higher game, than our 
looms, or forges. It is not the manufacture of cot- 
tons or woollens that they have so much at heart. 
It is the manufacture of republics, which has al- 
ready advanced on the American continent with a 
rapidity, alarming to the hereditary governments of 
Europe. And we hesitate not to say, that, if a 
single military achivement is to open the way to the 
chair of State, to a citizen acknowledged by his 
friends in point of qualifications, "to stand at an 
immeasurable distance from it," a more dangerous 
blow is struck at the cause of republican liberty, 
than if Spain and Great Britain should, by over- 
whelming povv^er, resubjugatc this whole continent. 
Such a catastrophe, deplorable as it would be, would 
be transient. The spirit of '76 would revive ; and 
the yoke would be shaken off, as soon as it was 
re-imposed. But for a decay in the bosom of the 
republic itself; for a prostration of the civil prin- 
ciple by our own hands ; there can be no remedy. 
We consider a military election as worse than a 
military usurpation. The latter, as we see in the 
republics of the south, awakens the resistance of 
its victims. But if the people, of their own will, 
set up the highest civil trust of the country as a 
glittering bauble to be worn by the most fortunate 
champion, on the field of battle, they not only 
plunge the country into the evils of an incompe- 
tent administration of its affairs, but they destroy 
the only hope of a remedy. 

The question now before the people of the United 
States is a neic question, and one which goes to 
the stability of the republic; several of our Presi- 
dents have been elected without serious opposition. 
This was the case with General Washington, with 
Mr. Jefferson in 1805, and with Mr. Munroe in 



21 

1821; others have been elected, after close contests, 
of which the most violent were those of 1797 and 
1801. In these contests, no doubt, great difference 
of opinion, on political questions, was brought into 
action. But we have the authority of Mr. Jeffer- 
son for the assertion, that there was none which 
went to the foundation of the repubhc. When Mr. 
Jefferson took the chair of the senate, as Vice- 
President, in 1797, he used this language ; " The 
more important functions of the Presidency have 
beenjustly confided to the eminent character, [John 
Adams] who has preceded me here ; whose talents 
and integrity have been known and revered by me, 
through a long course of years, have been the foun- 
dation of a cordial and uninterupted friendship be- 
tween us ; and I devoutly pray he may long be pre- 
served for the government, the happiness, and pros- 
perity of our common country." Another anima- 
ted controversy followed, and at the close of it 
in 1801, Mr. Jefferson thus expressed himself; 
" Every difference of opinion is not a difference of 
principle. We have called, by different names, 
brethren of the same principle. We are all repub- 
licans, we are all federalists." Such is the account 
of our parties given in 1801 by one, who certainly 
will not be accused either of indifference to princi- 
ple, or of ignorance of the real nature of our party 
divisions. 

But if our parties, thus far, have divided not on 
principle but on opinion, we are now at issue, on 
on the principle, which lies at the very foundation 
of the republic. If there is any thing which can 
be called republican principle, if our whole sys- 
tem of politics have any foundation in reason and 
truth, it is, that office is a civil trust requiring 
qualifications for its performance. In other ages, 
and in other States there has been only a melancho- 
ly alternation of despots, who claim to rule by the 
grace of God ; and soldiers that rise up, from time to 



22 

time, and rule by the right of the strongest. Ex- 
asperated by military violence the people call back 
their hereditary lords ; and again, worn out by their 
legitimate tyrants, they swell the train of the con- 
queror, who starts up to avenge, and having aveng- 
ed, to oppress them. The people of the United 
States have been urged to the eve of an experiment 
of strange and appalling novelty. In the bosom of 
peace, they are urged to reject a pacific and skill- 
ful magistrate, and place the reins of government in 
the hands of a military chieftain. Standing alone, 
as they do in the world, the only consolidated re- 
public, amidst monarchies hostile of necessity to our 
very existence, we are called upon to trample upon 
the principle of our institutions, to permit an unin- 
formed warrior, in the language of Mr. Jefferson, on 
another occasion "to ride booted and spurred" into 
the Presidency of the United States. 

Nor is the theory behind the practice. While 
the subordinate partisans are plying the people with 
every art of political intrigue and -management, 
goading them into madness against tried and faith- 
ful servants, and exalting beyond the bounds of 
human merit a man, whom they themselves had just 
taught the community to fear and despise, the 
leaders are occupied in poisoning the springs of the 
public judgment, and inventing new tests of moral 
and political merit. One of them, who has never 
found an Administration of his own country to 
approve, has informed the people -of the United 
States, that he is of the party of General Jackson, 
and that had he lived in Rome, he should have 
been of the party of Ca)sar. Another has made the 
discovery, that in the scale of republican merit, the 
talent of writing is the lowest, that of speaking the 
next, and that of action the first. 

At least then fellow citizens, we cannot complain, 
that we are kept in entire ignorance of the policy 
of our opponents. If we are also for Csesar, we 



'2S 

know which candidate to support. If we disdain 
the wisdom of the cabinet and the eloquence of the 
senate, and believe that action is the only reauisite 
for a republican President, and "to look on blood 
and carnage with composure " his highest merit, 
our choice is easy. The opposing candidate is a 
brave, unreflecting, successful soldier ; and in 
answer to every inquiry instituted as to his qualifi- 
cations, in reply to every objection made to his 
character, his supporters tell you, " that he gained 
the battle of New-Orleans." 

If you incline to the belief, that this is a govern- 
ment of law and of reason ; a government to be 
administered, as it was formed, by the application 
of civil wisdom ; if you believe that the chief 
magistracy is an arduous trust, requiring qualifica- 
tion, experience, constitutional learning, and prac- 
tice in the administration of affairs, your choice is 
not less easy. It is the peculiarity of this contest, 
that there is really no competition between the 
candidates. Settle the principle of choice, and 
you settle the man to be chosen. Mr. Adams' 
friends do not pretend, that he can look on blood 
and carnage with composure, although they believe 
he has an uncommon share of that courage of the 
cabinet, which is full as noble, and far less frequent 
than that of the field. Our opponents cannot pre- 
tend, that their candidate has any experience in 
the administration of the government, any aptitude 
for the duties of the office, or any knowledge of 
the higher politics of the country, at home or 
abroad. 

If, then, we wish for a civilian and a statesman, 
we shall not hesistate in our candidate. Mr. 
Jefferson, in 1785, perceived in him the seeds 
of future usefulness, and congratulated Mr. 
Gerry on the prospects of the country, in the 
young man. He was then 18 years of age. In 
1797, General Washington declared him the most 



24 

useful character which we had abroad. Mr. King 
and General Pinckney were then in the foreign 
service of the country. In 1809, Mr. Madison 
sent him as minister to Russia ; and in 1811, the 
same President appointed him to the bench of the 
Supreme Court of the United States. In 1814, he 
stood at the head of the negotiators at Ghent. 
In 1817, he was placed by Mr. Munroe in the 
Department of State, General Jackson pronounc- 
ing him ' the fittest person for the office ; a man 
who would stand by the country in the hour of 
danger.' For eight years he administered that 
department, longer than any other individual, 
with the exception of Mr. Madison, and as ac- 
ceptably as he. During this period, the claims 
on Spain were paid, Florida added to the Union, 
and the republics of the South recognized. 

As President of the United States, he has 
conducted the affairs of the country, with a 
wisdom, a prudence and success, which have 
driven his opponents, in their desperation, to 
declare, ' that they would prostrate his adminis- 
tration, although as pure as the angels.' 

Such being the alternative between the candi- 
dates, our faith in the virtue of the people inspires 
us with the strongest confidence. They cannot, 
will not hesitate. It is not possible, that all the 
manifestations of a kind Providence to this people, 
are to end in the prostration of an able, virtuous, 
and incorruptible public servant. To the control 
of that Providence, and the intelligence and virtue 
of the people, we cheerfully commit the result. 



SHERMAN LELAND, WILLIAM W. PARROTT, 

WILLIAAl B. CALHOUN, JAMES SAVAGE, 

H. A. S DEARBORN, JOHN R. ADAN, 

TIMOTHY FULLER, ABBOTT LAWRENCE, 

LEVERETT SALSTONSTALL, JOHN T. VVINTHROP, 

THOMAS WELSH, JR. JOHN B. DAVIS, 

FRANCIS C. GRAY, S. C. PHILLIPS, 

Massachusetts Central Committee^ 



89 Hr 






,0* V" 










